Professional services
Inventory for a CA practice: the little you hold, and what to ignore
A practice sells time, not goods, so most firms never open the stock screens. The exception is anything you buy and resell to clients, and that is worth tracking properly.
In short
SimpleERP lets a CA firm or consulting practice skip inventory entirely, or track only what it resells, such as DSC tokens, at weighted average cost, while stationery goes to expenses and laptops to the asset register.
Illustration of stock on hand by warehouse at average cost, with a low-stock row highlighted and a movement ledger.
An inventory day at Venkatraman Iyer & Associates
The only shelf that matters at the practice is the one behind the front desk with a box of DSC tokens. New company directors need a digital signature for ROC filing, the practice buys tokens from a dealer in Parry's Corner and bills each one to the client with the setup fee.
Last March the box was empty on the day three incorporations needed signing, and an articled assistant spent the afternoon in an auto fetching more. Nobody knew whether the eight tokens bought in January had all been billed or whether two went out free to a long-standing client.
Everything else the office buys, from printer toner to A4 reams, is spent the week it arrives and never needs counting. SimpleERP lets the practice track the tokens as stock and leave the rest as plain expenses.
What should a practice track as stock, and what can it ignore?
The test is simple: if you bill it to a client as a separate line, track it. If it is used up running the office, expense it. If it lasts years, register it as an asset.
- Services carry no stock, so a fee invoice never touches inventory.
- Expense categories such as stationery and repairs, ten seeded for you.
| Item | Where it goes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| DSC tokens resold to clients | Product with stock | Billed on invoices, so stock and margin matter |
| Printed annual report copies billed per set | Product with stock | Only if you charge for them per copy |
| Printer toner, paper, files and folders | Expense with a category | Used up in the office, never resold |
| Laptops and the office server | Fixed asset | Lasts years and depreciates monthly |
| Audit, return and ROC filing work | Service, no stock | Time, billed with a SAC code |
| Client documents and working papers | Not in SimpleERP | Keep them in your document system |
How do we keep the DSC token box from running empty?
Set a reorder level of five on the token product. When a supplier bill brings ten tokens in, stock rises; each invoice that bills a token to a client takes one out at average cost. Once the count drops below five, the token shows in the needs-attention list on the dashboard.
- Low-stock list built from the reorder level you set.
- Movement ledger that names the invoice each token left on.
- Stock adjustment with a reason for a token given free or found faulty.
Illustration of stock on hand by warehouse at average cost, with a low-stock row highlighted and a movement ledger.
Can a practice switch the stock screens off?
They never switch on for you in the first place. With one office and no products, SimpleERP shows no warehouses and no stock menus in the day-to-day screens. A partner who only bills engagement fees, pays salaries and reviews the bookkeeping retainers will not meet a stock screen at all.
- One location means no warehouse to choose on any document.
- Add a product later and stock appears only for that item.
One system
What it connects to
Professional services
SAC-coded invoices with place of supply, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
See howGST billing for CA firms
Fee invoices for audits, returns and retainers with the right SAC code, IGST for clients in other states and TDS-aware receipts.
See howAccounting for CA firms
The practice's own books: fee income by type, retainers paid in advance, TDS deducted by clients and a month-end close the partners trust.
See howPayroll for CA firms
Salaries for staff accountants, stipends for articled assistants, busy-season leave and audit travel claims, paid from one run.
See howInventory
Stock on hand by warehouse at weighted average cost, with a movement ledger and a low-stock list.
See how
Honest limits
What SimpleERP does not do yet
- No batch, lot, serial or expiry tracking, and no barcode scanning
- Weighted average cost only; there is no FIFO
- No automatic reorder suggestions: the reorder level shows what is low, you decide what to buy
- No register of client documents or working papers taken in and returned
Getting started
Start with inventory
Sign up with your phone
Name, phone number and a password. No card for the seven-day trial, and email is optional.
Tell us about the business
Type your GSTIN and the state fills itself. Accounts, GST rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for you.
Add products and opening stock
Add DSC tokens or anything else you resell as a product with its HSN code, and enter the tokens on the shelf today as opening stock.
Post a bill and an invoice
Stock rises on the purchase bill and falls on the invoice, at weighted average cost, with nothing to count by hand.
FAQ
Questions, answered
We are a twelve-person practice with no goods. Do we pay for inventory we never use?
Pricing does not change with the modules you use. A practice that only bills fees, pays its team and keeps its own books simply never adds a product, and inventory stays out of the way.
Should stationery be stock or an expense?
An expense. Record the stationery shop's bill with a receipt photo under a stationery category, with the input GST shown separately. Counting reams of paper adds work and tells a partner nothing useful about the practice.
How do we record a token we gave a client for free?
Post a stock adjustment that takes one token out with a reason such as complimentary for an existing client. Its cost goes to the ledger, so the free token shows up as a cost rather than disappearing.
Where do the partners' laptops go?
Into the fixed asset register, with the partner or articled assistant who holds each one. Depreciation posts every month, and the register shows which laptop to collect when someone completes their articleship.
Related
Keep reading
Professional services
SAC-coded invoices with place of supply, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
Read moreGST billing for CA firms
Fee invoices for audits, returns and retainers with the right SAC code, IGST for clients in other states and TDS-aware receipts.
Read moreAccounting for CA firms
The practice's own books: fee income by type, retainers paid in advance, TDS deducted by clients and a month-end close the partners trust.
Read more
See how inventory works in SimpleERP for professional services
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